Chennai: Australian Coach Mickey Arthur looks confident regarding the recovery of David Warner’s thumb injury and he is "pretty sure" that the dynamic opener will come all guns blazing in the first Test of the series starting here on Friday.
Warner missed out on the couple of practice matches due to a thumb injury and there are lots of if’s and but’s about whether he would play in the opening Test of the four match series.
Arthur said, "We just want to see how David Warner comes up over the next day or two. It's critical that he trains well over the next day or two to make in to the playing eleven. He's been doing a lot of batting against spin which has been fantastic. He hasn't faced pace bowling which is the only area of concern," he added.
In case, Warner misses out on First Test, then Shane Watson will be making his way to the top-order with Ed Cowan. “Services of Watson is much more needed in middle-order because our middle order looks very fragile at the moment and inclusion of Watson at number four will add much needed strength to it. He is regular campaigner for the team and expectations are very high from him in this very tough series,” Arthur added.
Arthur was reluctant to divulge details of Australia's possible line-up for the match. "We are looking out at our best possible options which can adapt well to these conditions to bog down India in India. Moises Henriques has a better chance of being picked because he ended up with a haul of 4 for 12 in the first of the two warm-up games.”
But Arthur said the dilemma over seam or spin is not entirely over as of now. "We've got to look at what our best opportunity is to take 20 wickets. Maxwell has worked extremely hard. I think he has got a huge future. We have to weigh that up," he said.
